Reviews are creeping up everywhere
I was checking in online the other day for my trip to Digital Marketing Strategies conference and Continental had placed the following set of tabs at the bottom of my boarding pass.
Here were their suggestions for restaurants, nightlife and things to do. I am not sure how these got loaded in but the fact that these businesses have a review gathering process helps.
I would think your business could benefit from this type of exposure. But if you...
As I travel and speak to business owners and industry people I have been asked if I could simplify how this “new” customer is shopping. How it affects their interaction and what can they do to improve their sales.
Let me begin by saying that just because I am in digital media, I do not feel how you have been using traditional media in marketing your business in the past is wrong. What I want you to understand is what that media is doing for you and how you may have to change some of your budget in the future.
The customer of today is over-worked, way too much is on their plate and time is precious. They now rely on technology to help them use...
As we continue our conversation about Zero Moment of Truth, where customers research you and your products online, let’s not forget what the First Moment of Truth is: When people contact your business.
I want to focus on what happens when customers get on site and how what happens can affect the sale. To explain my point, at a recent workshop I posed this question to attendees: “ What are some things that customers saw upon coming to a business that negatively affected their willingness to buy?”
A few auto dealers had multiple stories, from customers having to walk through a messy smoking area to salespeople grouped together right by the door on a Monday morning, sizing up the arriving customers, to messy coffee areas, to – the worst situation in my mind – an incoming customer receiving no greeting for minutes at a time even while the customer can see salespeople standing there looking back at him yet not moving at all.
How unsettling.
So, when they...
I was sitting in a meeting when my cell phone rang. I did not recognize the number so I let it go to voicemail. On my drive home I listened to the message.
“This message is for Mr. and Mrs. Pasch. This is Amica Insurance…” I perked up and wondered, what is wrong, is my coverage changed, but to my surprise the message continued. “We at Amica would just like to thank you for your business. We appreciate that you have chosen us and just wanted to reach out and thank you. “
That made me smile. In a business where I teach customer service and how to improve their online reputation and get customers to be brand advocates, this stood out and I had to write about it.
Is your business going to that level? Is your business letting your customers know you appreciate them WITHOUT trying to sell them something?
I think...
I recently related a story to an audience I was speaking to about improving performance. The short version is that my son has some ongoing medical issues and my wife and I are very vigilant in monitoring his progress. When he had to have a certain procedure, the doctor remarked that he must have been showing this sign or that sign, to which we responded, “No he wasn’t”.
That day I learned a new word. A-symptomatic. Meaning not showing symptoms. I thought about this and it struck me how certain businesses can also be a-symptomatic. Everything looks great on the surface, but lurking below the surface are potential problems that only will surface when it is too late.
To drive this point home, how many of you reading this article inspect your processes with the same intensity when you have your best month versus when you had a month that missed...
I just held a follow up webinar to my workshop at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp on Reputation Management. I waited for a few weeks to see what dealers who attended would implement and how their progress was going. I wanted to share results from three people because it covers a lot of situations you may run into.
First person to offer up comments said that it was going slowly because they had a “Digitally Challenged boss”. They were doing it all themselves. They wanted to implement new ideas but their...
Change is not easy. Not for individuals, groups or businesses. There I said it. Anyone who speaks to the contrary is wrong. I was sitting up the other night flipping the channels and just was amazed at the amount of infomercials I have seen on how we can change quickly or how we can revolutionize our life with a certain product, I just laugh and then it made me mad.
Now I have been one of those people who are fascinated by these claims, but I have also been in the coaching and training field for over 20 years and been in a position of managing others for close to 30. (No my photo is not retouched, just good genes)
So why is everyone claiming they can change you in a few minutes or weeks? Because it sells or as my wife says, “It is good TV”. People have such a “fast food” mentality that if we have to wait for anything it can’t be good.
Trust me you did not gain those 20 extra pounds in a week nor will you lose them in a week and keep them off. Everything can...
In this very competitive marketplace a successful business needs not only a great company vision but great managers to see it through.
Examine any successful dealership’s business module and you will find a great manager there turning each goal into reality. A great manager understands how to take hold of a company’s vision and translate it into processes and procedures that will accelerate their staff to the top.
How these managers communicate their message to their teams is one of the keys to their success. Without exceptional people skills, managers will never be able to help coach their team through their learning curve, through their successes and more importantly, helping them through their struggles.
We are all here today and in our current positions because many people took the time to teach us how to succeed. From our parents to our teachers, our friends, to coaches in sports to business people, if you took the time to think about how many people...
Hi my name is Glenn and I am a recovering “glass half empty-aholic.” I have worked diligently over time to change my outlook. I have been very successful, but at times I still fall back to focus on what did not work versus what did work.
I bring this up because lately I have been confronted with management continuing to find only fault without applauding any success. Business leaders, who live in the 30-day cycle, quickly forget what someone did for the last three months as soon as they have a bad month.
We are all guilty at one time or another of not praising our employees. There are studies stating that successful companies praise their employees four times as much as they deliver negative feedback.
What would your ratio be? Mine is three and climbing. It is not easy but you have to remind yourself to compliment people when you can.
If I tasked...
In the third post of the series on Online Reputation:
Your dealership has created a culture on-site that promotes excellent customer service. You have the tracking to know where you would like people to post, you have optimized your Google Places and now you think, “this all sounds great, I understand the importance, I am ready to go….How do I get people to post?”
My response is simple: Ask Everyone!
If I said to you that by the end of the year I would like to see over 200 people posting reviews...
